Franchise Hockey Manager 12 news & patch notes

• PM's (verious alert messages sent directly to the user)
• News (all regular news items
• Trades (all completed trades)
• Trade Rumors (all reported trade rumors, aside from those during the draft)
• Transfers (all completed player transfers)
• Waiver News (players exposed to waivers, aside from the automatic exposure for non-exempt minor leaguers at the start of the year, and successful waiver claims)
• Signings (player signings that do not extend an exisiting contract)
• Contract Extensions (player signings that extend an existing contract)

An update for for FHM12, version 12.3.37, has just been released. This update adds a number of new user-requested ease-of-use features and a few new options. Additionally, the rosters for playable leagues have been updated as of the beginning of February. The next update, barring any need for hotfix patching in the interim, will come sometime after the NHL trading deadline on March 6. Your existing savegames will be compatible with the updated game, but some issues that are data-dependent may require a new game before you see them. Changes: -rosters for playable leagues updated as of February 1 (i.e. Palat-Tsyplakov trade is in, Panarin trade is not) -owner goals are now optional and can be disabled via the File-Setup/Options screen, in the "Other Options" section (disabling Owner Goals in a running game, all active Goals will be deleted with no penalty) -commissioners (i.e. multiplayer-league commissioners or anyone playing with commissioner mode on) can now recall players from active waivers; any claims on the player will be removed if this is done; this also includes automatic-waiver situations, e.g. for waiver-eligible players in the minors at the start of a season -staff now have next/previous arrows as on the player screens that will cycle through the staff profiles -goaltender histories updated with more complete shots/goals against totals and W-L-T in leagues where they had previously been unavailable -during college signing days, the number of scholarships (full and partial) that have been offered by the team so far will be displayed on the draft screen -future-season NCAA commitments updated as of late January -lowered excessive potential in 19/20-year-old players eligible for 2026 draft -the team transaction log now displays full contract details for new free agent signings (as had previously only been shown for renewals) -summarized scouting reports (that normally appear monthly in your messages) can now be generated on-demand via a button in the Head Scout box on the Scouting Screen -the protected lists of other teams can now be viewed while setting up your own protected list for any drafts that use them (expansion, waiver, etc.) -if the game begins with an initial re-draft, the players in it will now all be fully scouted to "A"-level -if the schedule is re-generated in an Olympic year during a historical game, it will now include a proper Olympic break in the years where the NHL participates (i.e.97-98, 01-02, 05-06, 09-10, 13-14, 25-26 and later) -fixed incorrect sort order for Evaluating Potential and Evaluating Ability on the Staff screen -the 2025 draft in historical mode should now be populated properly -the Staff free agents screen will no longer show some free agent staff from the starting database as having contracts -staff ratings are now always displayed as integer values (in addition to bars in some places) -a user-run team's scouting Watchlist can now be accessed directly via a link in the Team menu -in custom leagues with promotion enabled, being promoted to a league with a salary cap will no longer result in a crash -on right-click menus, a team's farm teams will now be sorted in order of (descending) league hierarchy, rather than alphabetically -the staff budget (total amount and amount remaining) is now displayed on the Staff free agents screen -contract renewal messages sent for staff now include a list of their ratings

This update is probably a little heavier on the bug fixes vs. new content than previous December updates, but there were a few complex issues that needed addressing. We've still added a number of new things, like the long-requested improvement to the 2D mode popups and the option to start standard games with an NHL redraft. There are also a couple of larger projects we're continuing to work on for the mid-winter content update that'll come after this one.

Your existing savegames will be compatible with the updated game, but some issues that are data-dependent may require a new game before you see them.

Changes:

-2D mode popups have had some changes made and information, specifically: on a penalty the current PP/SH% are shown; on a fighting major, both players are now shown rather than just onel after a fight the winner is shown (or a message stating that there was no clear winner); and more information on goals: extensions of goal and points streaks, mutiple-goal games (and this system is expandable, so more will be coming in future updates)

-added initial draft (for NHL only) to standard-mode games (i.e., you can redraft the NHL at the beginning of a new standard game, rather than needing to create a custom game to do that) - option is on the "Set Up Your Manager" popup during initial setup, labeled "Ini Draft")

-added "Is on Watchlist" and "Is on Shortlist" (of the user's team) to the player search filter

-RFA compensation salary ranges are now editable on July 1

-fixed problem that was causing waiver claims by human players to fail in some cases

-AI teams will no longer trade draft picks that they've already traded

-adjusted trade valuation of players with bad contracts to prevent their trade value from being reduced by an excessive amount if the disparity between player quality and pay was very large; this has improved trading performance by the AI, but we still may need to look at other financial factors (e.g. remaining length of contract) that affect trade value of players

-fixed likely cause of extreme slowness of 2D engine display on some Macs

-fixed issue that was preventing proper display of full highlights in 2D mode

-playable league rosters are updated (as of December 15)

-2024-25 awards history is added

-made additional adjustmets to 2D mode to fix the imbalance of shots coming from centres vs. from wingers

-fixed issues with some U20 national teams using players from other countries

-fixed a crash caused by a problem with the USports playoff timing

-fixed issue that could cause an unrecoverable dropoff of the quality of Russian and Belarusian generated players during and just after the seasons where those nations are suspended from international play

-2002 Olympics now begins after the qualification round to prevent conflicts with the NHL schedule

-in commissioner mode, the option to move a player to a generic team is no longer cut off

-the last few league names are no longer cut off on the Leagues of the World popup

An update for for FHM12, version 12.1.26, has just been released. This update is a mixture of bug fixes and some other changes, particularly the Current rosters start option. The first real "Content" update that adds news features, however, will still be the next one, likely out around Christmas. Your existing savegames will be compatible with the updated game, but some issues that are data-dependent may require a new game before you see them. Changes: -the "Current" quickstart has been added, with roster moves up to last Monday 9 (November 17); as usual, this will be the version of the database that will be maintained from this point forward, and the opening night quickstart is frozen unless something gamebreaking in it is found -fixed issue that could cause extremely high salary demands if league cap had been edited; this will also retroactively fix saves where the problem is present (but will not adjust any existing contracts that were signed under the effects of the excessive demands) -when attempting to acquire a player via transfer, once the transfer is accepted the negotiations with the player will now be resolved instantly rather than using the normal free agent process that can take multiple days to resolve -further reduced the tendency of the AI to trade superstar players -if the user's team has a parent team, the user can now reassign any players assigned by the parent to his own farm team(s) or reserve list -when setting up a historical game in later seasons, progress bar will no longer appear to get stuck at 99% during the long setup time spent creating real histories as of that season -background sounds should now work correctly again in 2D mode -historical minor leagues can now manually regenerate their schedule (on the league edit - structure screen, although other structural changes are not possible) -on the player screen Picture Menu button, added options for "Regenerate same picture" and "New fictional picture" for the entire team in addition to individual players -added a scroll bar to the "Select Playable Leagues" popup if a large number of leagues (e.g. in a quickstart created from a custom game) so the list doesn't get cut off -fixed potential crash when adding GM's to a multiplayer historical game -the sort order by Signing Deadline on the Team-Unsigned screen no longer breaks after the first season -added explanatory text to the "league has an invalid playoff format" error -Slovakia will no longer appear in the World Championships in 1975 -when a player is nominated for an award, the note on his Bio screen now includes the award description the same way it does when he wins the award -Luxembourg U20 team will no longer use over-20 players -the World Junior Championships in historical no longer has some columns displayed wrong in the years where it's a round-robin/no playoffs format -fixed missing NHL team logos in some historical challenges -the "fhm" alternate skin will no longer show the team transactions logs with dark text on a dark background -replaced one version of Toronto St. Patricks logo to fix green text on green background -fixed naming issue with some logos in historical that would cause them to replace the default team logo in the wrong seasons -added Utah Mammoth logo to historical (but to see it the team name will need to be edited as they're still Utah Hockey Club at the end of the historical database in 24-25) -fixed various small text errors and typos

An update for for FHM12, version 12.1.24, has just been released. This update addresses a few issues that took a little too long to fix and check to make it into the initial hotfix, as well as some things that have become evident since then. There will likely be one more update to address thing that need a little longer to work on (such as trade AI) before we begin doing content updates, the first of which will include the "current" version of the database with post-opening night player moves. Your existing savegames will be compatible with the updated game, but some issues that are data-dependent may require a new game before you see them. Changes: -text play-by-play is working again in 2D mode (for full and all levels of highlights) -the user's goalie switch tactical setting will no longer get reset to Very Slow at the start of a 2D game -NHL free agents will no longer sign between July 1 and the draft -notifications of players being sent up/down by a parent team (when playing as a farm team) are now working again -a number of database updates, mainly for player data -added some team single-game records data, will be more coming -mental training for goaltenders should now be selectable via right-click on the training screen -updated KHL playoff system -fixed potential crash when shopping a player -major junior teams will no longer sign goalies that are too old for the league -the "Coach" job rating for human Coach/GM's will no longer get reset to 15 from 20 -fixed bug in FHM11 save import that could result in larger imported saves crashing when continued past July 1 -fixed "1 goals" text to read "1 goal" when describing game stats in a news story (and same for points/assists) -fixed missing details in trade news for junior leagues -fixed ? appearing instead of ' in a few news stories -it is now impossible to choose a custom data path that's within the original game installation location (which leads to an endless loop of copying files) -South African U20 team will no longer use older players -fixed missing Danish national team in historical mode -Danish U20 team will no longer use some French players in historical mode -added RETIRED to the STAFF_RATINGS export so ratings from re-used staff ID's can be identified

A hotfix for FHM12, version 12.1.22, has just been released. We've released this early hotfix to address a few critical issues, as well as a handful of things where quick, safe fixes were possible. We'll be doing a larger update next week to deal with things that will take a little longer to fix and test. Anything database-related, for example, will take us at least a couple of days to implement, so we need a little more lead time for that. Your existing savegames will be compatible with the updated game, but some issues that are data-dependent may require a new game before you see them; also, see the note below regarding a crash during the 4-Nations Cup that may require some additional help if you're already getting the crash in your save. Changes: -fixed a crash when starting as custom game while controlling a team -adjusted trading frequencies to lower the number of trades for draft picks -Steam Workshop now enabled -Steam achievements should now trigger properly -training programs now work properly in historical and custom modes -the game no longer thinks it's in troubleshooting mode and creates a trace file even when that mode is turned off -fixed affiliation error in historical where Bridgeport would be Detroit's AHL affiliate instead of Grand Rapids after 2002 -fixed crash when attempting to view team history page via league-season history -corrected error text on FHM11 import warning